Brothers
by Mizurio
Summary: [Chapter one post FMA]'I was at the river looking for you, and I saw you in the water. You were face down, not moving at all. You just…floated along in the water and—and you wouldn’t move...'


Well, I have no idea what brought this on. I just turned on the computer and opened a blank word document and typed away. I wanted to write something that was (sort of, I _tried_ to keep under 1500 words, but…) short and with as little editing as needed. I also wanted to explore the relationship between Ed and Al; I have a younger brother of my own, so I think I did pretty alright in that department.

Oh, yeah and this is post-FMA, if you didn't know yet. Meaning that Ed and Al have their kawaii chibi bodies!

I would also like to note that I really don't do much angst, so I'm still a newbie at the genre, so please read and give me as much feed back as you want.

I'll shut up now.

I hope you enjoy. :) (Okay, now I'll be quiet…)

* * *

**Dreams**

-+-

"You're so slow! C'mon, hurry up Al!"

"Brother—Brother, wait!" The younger Elric huffed as he struggled to keep up with Ed. The intense rays of the sun were beating down on him relentlessly as he ran. Sweat ran down his face as he moved around the foliage of the thick forest, and he heard a loud splashing sound near by. Passing through the last of the bushes he saw that Ed had been so eager to swim in the river that he had jumped in with out bothering to even take off his clothes.

Ed dog paddled in circles in the shallow water. Today had been so unbearably hot, and it was rare that their mother let them wander this far from home. Ed was going to take full advantage of this moment. He looked back at his little brother, who was only in the water ankle deep. The small boys' hands were fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, and his big brown eyes were filled with worry.

The small blonde sighed and swam back to land as fast as his arms and legs would take him. "Al, look it's alright. It is only water after all. What's there to be afraid of? Don't chicken out on me now." He said to him softly. The slightly shorter boy wasn't convinced by the lack luster pep talk. "Al, what's the matter?" Ed asked when the younger brother wouldn't look up at him.

"I'm not a chicken!" Al shouted, the words bouncing off the wet rocks an echoing through out the dense forest. Ed made himself to take a few steps back to give the boy some space. "I'm not scared of the dumb water either!" He shouted. He hated being thought of as weak and fragile just because he was the younger of the two.

Ed just looked on at his younger brother with awe. An outburst from the quiet and shy Alphonse Elric was even rarer than their trips to the river. "Then tell me what's wrong! You've been acting weird all day!" He yelled back, his gold eyes hardening with anger at being yelled at for no good reason.

There was a long silence that stretched between the two before Al looked up at his older brother. "I-I had a dream last night…About mom….and …" He choked out between small sobs. Tears welled up in his eyes and the boy fought the urge to cry. He didn't want to be called a crybaby just because he'd had a bad dream after all. It was one of the reasons he'd stopped going to his brothers bed at night as well, he wanted to be tough too!

The small blondes eyes softened and he put a child sized hand on his brother's shoulder. "Al—"

"It was really scary." He whispered, the tears finally falling. "I was at the river looking for you, and I saw you in the water. You were face down, not moving at all. You just…floated along in the water and—and you wouldn't _move_. I—I wanted to help, but I couldn't! My legs didn't wanna do anything. Brother, I was so _scared_… I kept yelling and yelling, but no one would come to help you…You kept going down stream and—I thought you were going to go away forever…And then Mother suddenly appeared out of nowhere and jumped into the water. She had this look on her face that I had never seen before…" Al stopped his story and took a deep breath. Ed was holding his brother in a tight hug and didn't look like he was going to let go any time soon.

"But by the time mother got to you, brought your face to the air….Mom set you on the ground and she just stared at me for what seemed like forever, and then she finally said 'Why…Why didn't you save my boy?' I'd never felt so horrible in my life." He stopped to take another breath and let out another sob. "The next thing I knew she was going back into the water. I tried to stop her, b-but…She…" Al didn't dare put the words 'mother' and 'suicide' in the same sentence.

Tears pricked at the corner of Ed eyes as he filled in the blanks of Al nightmare. How could someone so young dream up something so sad? It scared and worried him to know that his younger brother had these images in his head at night.

"Does mom know about this?"

Al slowly shook his head. He didn't ever want to tell his mom about something so bad. He wouldn't be able to stomach it if she started to cry in the middle of his morbid story.

"Al….I…" He didn't know what to say. What could you say, after hearing about your own death and mothers suicide? The small blond put a hand through his wet mop of hair and let out a shaky sigh. The other boy went to sit on the wet ground, tears still falling from his brown eyes as he sobbed quietly to himself.

Ed cupped his hands together and dipped them in the river. Getting as much as his little hands could hold, he went over to Al and gently spilled the crystal clear liquid onto his head to try and cool him down. Ed was almost completely dry from his dip in the water and he had gotten out no more than ten minutes ago.

Al welcomed the cold water on his head and let his older sibling play with his light brown hair. Al's hair was quite thin, and Ed began to spike it up in many different directions, going back and getting more water when he needed to hold it in place. After a few minutes he stepped back, an admired the work of art that was Alphonses' hair.

"Do you feel better now?" Ed asked grinning at the new hair style he'd created.

Al sniffled. "A little…" he wiped the last traces of tears from his face and looked up at his brother with a small smile on his face.

"You should take a look at yourself." That comment was all that it took for the young boy to crawl over to where land and water met to look at his reflection.

"I look like and idiot!" He exclaimed, taking his hands and quickly flattening his hair into its normal style.

Time seemed to slow down as Al felt a pair of hands on his back. He gasped as his body moved forward and his brown eyes were as big as saucers as his body collided with the river.

Splash.

"**AAAHHHHHHHH!"**

Edward's playful laughter was cut short as he watched in horror as Al thrashed about in the water, the terrifying scream ringing in his ear drums. Al's head was bobbing beneath the surface repeatedly, cutting off his yelling—and air supply.

Ed felt himself go numb at the sight of his drowning brother, and he could do anything about it. What was going on? Ed had only meant his playful shove as a joke….

'_Why…Why didn't you save my boy..?'_

"AAAAALLL!" Ed snapped back to reality and in a flash was swimming to his brother side. He was met with resistance from the panic stricken boy as he grabbed onto the collar of Al's shirt and brought him back to shore. The brunettes' hands and legs were flailing about, getting in a solid smack to his older bothers face.

Al felt like his head was about to explode he was so angry. "Brother…I want to go home.**_ NOW_**." He said calmly, not even looking at Ed. Said boy hung his head, "Al…." Twice in one day he'd been rendered speechless. This was not a good day.

"I'm sorry…." He whispered, keeping his distance as they walked back home. He didn't mean for things to go this far, and now he was the one who felt horrible. He quickly wiped away the tears before they could fall completely.

They didn't speak for the rest of the day.

* * *

"Brother…Al, wake up!" 

Al jumped into a sitting position in the bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Awah?" Al turned to see his older sibling standing next to his bed. "What do you want?" Al asked, trying to get a good look at the other boy in the darkness. He couldn't see him completely, but the moon light pouring out of the window showed him the bruise onEd's cheek perfectly clear. Ed didn't answer as he jumped in the bed and hugged Al tightly.

"Brother? What's the matter?" Al asked, his voice filled with worry. Ed just hugged him tighter and began to whisper, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…Please…Please don't leave me…I'm sorry…." Al didn't say anything as he gently wrapped his arms around his older brother.

"It's okay brother, I forgive you…."

All the while Ed tried to push away the petrifying image of Alphonse Elric's tiny body floating down a blood filled river, with their mother trailing slowly behind.

* * *

Well, there you go. For those that kinda didn't get the ending: Ed had the exact same dream that Al did, but with tiny differences that I'm sure you can figure out for yourself. There were some parts that I felt were kind rushed and I really wanted to elaborate more on the ending and the drowning scene, but I didn't want to drag this on and bore anybody halfway through. ; 

I might make this a collection of one-shots circling around the two brothers up to the point when their mom dies. But depending on the response I get for this, we'll see if things get better for the two Elric brothers or not.

Feedback would be very much appreciated, if you don't mind taking the time to review.

Pretty please?


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